This
monograph consists of eight chapters covering the history of Black settlement
between
1850 and 1906. Chapters 1 through 5 include
biographical sketches of all persons listed in official records, personal/residential/occupational
data for each person, residential districts and barbershop addresses,
a chronology of Black settlement for the period of study, and a narrative
analysis of data. Chapters 6 through 8 consist of reprints of eight articles
printed earlier in Past, Present, & Future: The Newsletter of the
La Crosse County Historical Society between 1998 and 2001. Of particular
are chapters regarding George Coleman Poage (olympian in 1904) and George
Edwin Taylor (newspaper publisher, politician, and unsuccessful candidate
for President of the United States in 1904).

This Wisconsin State
University-La Crosse seminar paper compares the letters of four Union
soldiers from La Crosse– James Mellor, Robert
Rogers, Ed Cronon and David Cronon - to examine the life of the
common soldier during the Civil War.

George
Poage was the first Black Olympian to win medals in the modern era,
placing third
in 200 meter hurdles and 400 meter hurdles
at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Games (St. Louis, MO) in 1904. This
paper traces his life and education in La Crosse from 1885 and his studies
at the University of Wisconsin where he excelled in track and classical
studies. The paper was presented at the Society of Sport History Annual
Meeting, held at the University of Wisconsin in May 1985. This paper
was revised and expanded in the January/February 1998 issue of Past,
Present & Future: The Newsletter of the La Crosse County Historical
Society, 1, 3-7, authored by Bruce Mouser and published under the title: "George
Coleman Poage: His La Crosse Years, 1885-1904." That article was
later reprinted in Black La Crosse, Wisconsin, 1850-1906: Settlers, Entrepreneurs,
Exodusers. Occasional papers of the La Crosse County Historical Society
#1 (La Crosse: La Crosse County Historical Society, 2002), 137-44.

An article written for the Reform Advocate, published in Chicago
in 1913, it gives a historical overview of the Jewish community in La
Crosse and highlights several prominent residents including lumberman
Morris Tuteur; Joseph Gutman; Dr. J.M. Furstman; and Albert Hirshheimer,
president of the La Crosse Plow Company.

Biographies of Township-This
862 page tome is the preeminent 19th century history of the La Crosse
area. It begins with a general overview of the history of
Wisconsin but then begins a detailed account of the history of both
the city and county of La Crosse including its villages and towns as
well as biographical sketches of prominent citizens. It is illustrated
with black and white woodcuts. A name index to this volume was compiled
in 1977 by Murphy Library and this index is included.

Pioneer Recollections-This
862 page tome is the preeminent 19th century history of the La Crosse
area. It begins with a general overview of the history of
Wisconsin but then begins a detailed account of the history of both
the city and county of La Crosse including its villages and towns as
well as biographical sketches of prominent citizens. It is illustrated
with black and white woodcuts. A name index to this volume was compiled
in 1977 by Murphy Library and this index is included.

The people of La Crosse are generous and
this collection of articles highlights some of the philanthropic efforts
to help other people. Topics include food pantries and community gardens,
community philanthropic events, volunteerism, and some specific organizations.

This 31 page tract
is good example of early 20th century civic “boosterism.” It
includes a short overview of the social life and features paragraph-length
descriptions of businesses, businessmen, and professionals. It is illustrated
with photographs and woodcut images and has an index at the back.

According to the publishers,
this book was produced “in response
to the repeated calls of citizens for the portfolio of the makers of
La Crosse.” Each page contains a separate portrait and a brief
biographical statement of that individual. Of note, all of the entries
are of men, mostly businessmen, but there are also religious leaders,
lawyers, doctors, government officials, educators, and even the manager
of the La Crosse Base Ball Team, Emerson Hawley. Unfortunately, there
is no table of contents or index to guide a researcher to the information
on a particular individual. Additionally, there are also portraits in
the 1900 La Crosse City Directory as well of prominent men of the day.

Memoirs of
La Crosse County / Benjamin Bryant; 1907.

This work, along
with History of La Crosse County, 1881, are the preeminent published
sources for 19th century La Crosse history. Bryant’s Memoirs,
as it is commonly called, is a wide-ranging work that covers the early
history of La Crosse as well as the social, education, government,
religious, and business institutions. The book is divided into 22 chapters
and also includes brief histories of the smaller towns of La Crosse
County. An alphabetical name index to Bryant’s Memoirs was prepared
and digitized in 2004 and is available for searching at the “name
index” button.

Indian
Affairs - Indefinite Boundaries of Indian Domains-Limitations
of the Algonquin Family-Western Wisconsin a Neutral Ground-Occupation
by the Winnebagoes-Indian Game the Origin of Name "La Crosse"-
Attitude of the Indians toward the Early Settlers-Treaty of
1837- Indian Cave in Barre Township-Indian Villages-Mound Building
in La Crosse County.

This book is a comprehensive,
first person account of people and events in La Crosse in the 19th
century by Louis H. Pammel. At the time of publication of this 102
page book in 1928, Pammel was a professor of botany at Iowa State College.
His book begins with a general history of La Crosse, a description
of the flora and fauna of the area, and his father’s emigration
from Germany and arrival in La Crosse in 1855. The focus of the book,
though, is on the people that Pammel knew or had acquaintance of and
events that occurred La Crosse primarily in the 1870s and 1880s. There
is a name index at the back that was added at a later date. There are
no illustrations.

This PhD thesis by Dr. Robert
Wingate, geography professor at UW-La Crosse, is a valuable research
tool on the pioneer settlers of La Crosse
County. As stated by the author, “The aim of the study is to examine
the locational factors operative in decision making during initial selection
of farmsteads in La Crosse County when the county was first settled between
1850 and 1875.” The thesis is divided into three major sections:
the La Crosse County physical environment, cultural milieu, and settlement
patterns. Wingate discusses the choices made by six ethnic groups - Norwegians,
British-Irish, Germans, Dutch, French, and Bohemians - when choosing
a homestead in La Crosse County. There are numerous graphs and charts
along with an extensive bibliography.

Compiled from old
La Crosse newspapers, this popular book brings together over 200 interesting,
unusual and bizarre stories from La Crosse's past not deemed suitable
for a general history book about the city. The chapter topics are animal
kingdom, children, domestic disasters, fun & games, ghosts, grief & sorrow,
naughty folks, odds & ends, transportation, weather.

Newspaper published in La
Crosse in 1886-1887. La Crosse was a hotbed of Labor political party
activity in the 1880s and the “Labor Advocate” was
one of at least four La Crosse area Labor-related newspapers from that
time. What makes the “Labor Advocate” unique was its editor
and owner: George Edwin Taylor. Taylor was an African-American, born
in Arkansas in 1857. As a black business owner, he was an anomaly in
La Crosse in the 1880s. Taylor got his start in publishing working at
other La Crosse newspapers. He also became increasingly interested in
politics as reflected in his editorship of the “Wisconsin Labor
Advocate.” The last existing edition of the paper dates from August
6, 1887 and George Edwin Taylor left La Crosse soon afterwards. He maintained
a life-long interest in politics and by 1904 had become involved an all
African-American political party called the National Liberty Party. Taylor
accepted the nomination of that party in 1904 as its candidate for the
office of the U.S. President. In doing so, Taylor was the first candidate
of a national African-American party for the U.S. presidency.

The Wisconsin Pioneer
Experience is a digital collection of diaries, letters, reminiscences,
speeches and other writings of people who settled
and built Wisconsin during the 19th century. Specific entries from La
Crosse include:
Nathan
Myrick letter, Friedrich
Tillman diary.